Canopy Bow Mirror

[N661DJ]

Bruce,
Received the mirrors, thanks, Will send a $ donation to DR.
Dick

[Saville]

Bruce,

Received my mirror blanks and PVC yesterday. Beautiful..thanks very much.

Other people have a good idea..since you don't want money I'll add to my yearly dues to DR.

I'm going to try and work out a drawing of the pvc placement based upon the article and post it here.

Thanks!

[BruceEicher]

Sounds good! You are all welcome!

Another thought; after glueing up and fitting it to the bar, I trimmed the PVC clip opening some more on one side or the other to adjust the tilt movement.

[Saville]

I've been trying to make the canopy bow mirrors a la Bruce's technique and I keep running into failures.

The basic problem can be seen here:



Using the silicone adhesive to glue the PVC semi-circle to the back of the mirror as recommended, the connection fails. The problem is with the strength of the bond of the reflective layer to the acrylic - it's weak. You can see that the reflective stuff adheres to the PVC/silicone.

I need this bond to be very strong as I fly acro and I can't have the mirror falling off.

I'm trying to come up with alternatives. The only successful one so far can be seen here:



I took a piece of scrap PVC and cut it to the shape of the mirror but left 1/2" tabs on the PVC. I then hit them with a heat gun and bent them over the mirror, clamped them lightly, and let them cool and set. I then cut them back so that they don't cover so much of the mirror.

They grip the mirror quite well.

So failing other possibilities I will use this technique to mount the mirror to a PVC backing plate holder the exact size and shape of the mirror. Then I'll use PVC cement to glue the semi-circle to the back of the backing plate. That will be strong enough. I think the mirror curvature is a circle but I'll verify that. if it is then sliding replacement mirrors in and out will be possible.

I tried gluing some vinyl wire cove to the scrap PVC but that failed - PVC glue didn't grip the vinyl. I'm thinking of trying some automobile door edge guard made from PVC - gluing that to the edge of the PVC backing plate along the top and bottom edge. That would be a better looking solution *IF* the PVC cement actually glues them together.

More later.

[BruceEicher]

Hi Gregg, Mine has failed just a while ago when I slammed it in the canopy. But I used a lot more silicone glue giving more surface bond to the mirror back. The De- bonding in my case was at the pipe clip so I just re-glued.
Aerobatics have not been a problem for me but Understand the concern

Do you need more mirror?

[Saville]

Originally Posted by BruceEicher

Hi Gregg, Mine has failed just a while ago when I slammed it in the canopy. But I used a lot more silicone glue giving more surface bond to the mirror back. The De- bonding in my case was at the pipe clip so I just re-glued.
Aerobatics have not been a problem for me but Understand the concern

Do you need more mirror?

Hi Bruce,

No don't need more mirror. I bought a 12"x12" sheet of acrylic mirror from Amazon and I have the second blank you gave me.
So I'm good to go on that score. I just need to find a good holder solution

Thanks!

[Go Guy]

I made mine but used a bigger glob of RTV and wrapped it to the top edge. I do minor Acro (just positive G stuff). So far no problems like you have had. Maybe if u used two clips it would hold better for your situation

I was concerned it would vibrate, but that hasn't been the case.

Rod

[GatorJim]

Shoe Goo.

Get it at Walmart. Won't let go.

[Saville]

Originally Posted by GatorJim

Shoe Goo.

Get it at Walmart. Won't let go.

In my case it's not the glue that is failing but the bonding of the shiny layer to the acrylic.

[sf3543]

To get a better bond, just bond something to the back of the mirror that is the size of the entire mirror, then bond it to the pvc and It will hold better. Doing this you are contacting a much larger portion of the mirror back and it should hold. You could use some thin aluminum, or maybe some plastic sheet, etc.
Worth a try.